Here are a few tips for winter camping. Shake your boots off before you go in the tent!
For water seeping through, avoid dips and down hill situation as much as possible. They are also frost pocket and get colder faster and longer. If you are planning on staying a while in the same spot, go mid hill opposite to prevailing wind, take time to flatten the spot as best as you can. You can also dig a small trench shape like a U with two exit point on the side of your tent and the third one on the up hill side. If you decide to put a tarp under your tent, make sure all of it is UNDER the tent, otherwise water will collect in pools in between the tarp and the tent. Generally speaking you should also keep away from water source. The dampness from the condensation at night will chill you like you can't believe if you are to close to a lake, river, stream or bog.
Also, take two water bottle with you. One with sand paper taped to it, the other without. Take a wild guess, the one without sand paper is for water, the other one so you don't have to get out to pee. The sand paper is so you know which is which when you wake up tursty at night and can't find a flash light... If it is real cold, pee takes your warm away from you, so evacuate, and keep the thightly shut hot bottle in your sleeping bag as a hot water bottle. Try and find a water bottle with a wide mouth to pee in, otherwise practice outside first so you don't spray your sleeping bag (valid for males too, I found that out myself
)... A funel might be advisable.
If you are in a situation where you can make fire safely, put a few rocks in your tent in the morning to make sure they are dry, then once you are certain they are dry, you put them in your fire in the evening. If they are still wet, water expend too fast as it warms up and can cause the rock to explode. Don't want you losing an eye in the bush, or being hit by flying hot rock shards generally speaking... Once you pull them out of the fire, make sure they are not too hot to burn cotton (you shouldn't be able to pick them with your hand, they would burn you, but if you touch them with a towel you shouldn't smell burnt fibers either). Make sure you wrap the rocks with no exposed surface in ALL NATURAL fibers, cotton, bamboo, lin, pure wool. Even better if you can, shove them inside ovenmits. They will melt any petroleum based fibers if in direct contact but will diffuse a nice warmt through the night. Make sure you can handle them bare hand once wrapped so they don't melt the floor of your tent. Use safety pins if you are to shove them in your sleeping bag with you, so that they don't come undone and burn you in the middle of the night.
Also be careful with grass for insulation, if it gets wet it will start to compost and can reach temp of 75 celsius within a few days, which would melt both the plastic bags and your tent... As long as it is dry you're grand though.
Good luck to you, hope this comes in handy
Stay safe and dry
